I saw several other people I knew from the ward and we had a nice breakfast prepared and served by the priesthood. Min pancakes stacked with a skewer, yogurt fruit cups and quiche. Since Sister Dew hadn't arrived yet we just visited and ate breakfast then returned to our seats and chatted some more until the Stake RS president came by and said that Sister Dew was in the back and please go shake her hand if you want. She didn't announce it but walked through the chapel telling sisters as she went. Surprisingly, not many sisters went to great her but Nanette and I went to the back. If I hadn't been with Nanette I'm not sure if I would have had the courage to go. As I shook her hand I told her how much I had admired her for many years and then she put her arm around me and gave me a warm hug. It was not an ordinary hug. Her spirit embraced my spirit and the feeling of love was overwhelming. The feeling of love lasted for a long while and when I think of it I can still feel the hug.
When Sheri Dew was in the General Relief Society presidency several years ago she was an inspiration to me and as the CEO of Deseret Book I have admired the way she has run the company and taken it to new places. She has always had a wonderful way with words that helps me relate to what she is teaching. Here are some of the highlights I wrote down while she was talking.
- She first talked about being obedient to those who hold the keys. "Because the one who holds the keys (the stake president) is here we have access to Priesthood Power.
- Next she talked about finding a talk accidentally by LeGrand Richards, an apostle from several years ago, called "I am more interested in the Long Hereafter than in the brief present". She talked about how short a time we have on earth compared to what happened before and what will be afterwards. She talked about her sister getting her partriarchal blessing from Edridge G. Smith who was the last patriarch for the whole church. She went with her sister to get her blessing. Patriarch Smith told her sister that he'd been trying to calculate how long earth life was compared to the rest of our eternal life. He said it wasn't doctrine but he thought that earth life was about 3 minutes and 27 seconds long. Then he asked Sister Dew's sister, "Can you be good for 3 min and 27 seconds?" Her sister replied, "it doesn't feel like that long!"
- Next Sheri Dew asked, "Do we want to be part of the kingdom or not?" Then she talked about last general conference April 2011. She said that as she was listening to the closing prayer of Saturday's session she heard, "we are grateful that so much is required of us". She said she opened her eyes and wrote it down even though that probably wasn't a good thing to do it startled her so much. The next afternoon she said Elder Todd Christopherson's talk went right along with the prayer. "He is a God of high expectations!" She then related a little of those who came across in the Wilie and Martin handcart companies and the hardship and privations they lived under during their crossing of the Wyoming plains. She quoted a sister's journal who had lived through that. "I am grateful to be worthy to be counted a Pioneer."
- Sister Dew emphasized how much influence each sister has. She said than an average woman has influence on about 1,000 people during their lives and of the about 400 sisters in attendance that was 400,000 people that would be influenced by the sisters in the room. 'What kind of influence do YOU want to be?" She talked about how much satan wants to stop women from being the kind of influence that changes lives for the better. She quoted Revelations 12:17 "and the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed which kept the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ". She said while the standard interpretation of the scripture was that 'woman' represented the church but that she could not look at that scripture and not take it literally as well because "women are the very center of the Plan of Salvation". She said the Eve was given the privilege to be the trigger off the fall.
- Sister Dew talked about a recent trip she had been on to New Zealand and Australia on church assignment. In Christchurch NZ she said that they have suffered 3-7.1 earthquakes in the last 9 months. She said that they are tired and their nerves are shattered. She talked about mothers being afraid to let children out of their sight and how some were just holding on. Then she talked about one sister she met who was different from most. This sister told Sister Dew that she and her family were okay. They were doing good. Sister Dew asked her what she was doing that helped her feel that way. This is what the sister said, "We've learned some things. We've learned about the power of Jesus Christ to heal us and the Power of the Priesthood to protect us." We will all have 'earthquakes' in our lives. What are we going to do about them. How are we going to handle them?
- Eliza R. Snow told of how she with her family was driven out of Missouri during the extermination order. She was a very educated, cultured woman. She was with her parents, grandmother, siblings. They found a 20x20 cabin that others had found before them. There were about 80 people crammed into the room. The chinks in the logs were missing because others had taken them out before them to burn them. The found a spot for her grandmother near a wall so she could lean against it. Her brother milked the cow and another brother took the warm milk and poured it over the frozen bread to warm it up for dinner. All those in the building were women and children and the stood up during the long night. Then men stayed outdoors and build a fire and sang during the night. She described it "all in all a merry night" and then said "none but the Saints can be happy in ANY circumstance" and when she was converted she said, "my heart is now fixed" (meaning fixed on the gospel).
- Sister Dew talked about climbing to the top of the Sydney Bridge. She didn't really want to go but everyone else did so she went along. That was the only place to go for the unbelievable view. She then compared the view from the top of the bridge to 'the long hereafter' spoken by LeGrand Richards. We have to make the climb - scriptures, temple, serving, etc. to be able to get to the top (eternal life). She talked about the things that stop us on our climb like fear and doubt. Sister Dew quoted 2 Nephi 32:7 "...the Spirit stoppeth mine utterance, and I am left to mourn because of the unbelief and the wickedness and the ignorance, and the stiffneckedness of men; for they will not search knowledge nor understand great knowledge when it is given unto them in plainness, even as plan as word can be." Then she asked us how many of us thought that the Savior would do for others but not for us? She said, is that not a form of unbelief?
- She then quoted Joseph Smith from the minutes of the first meetings of the female Relief Society "Lectures of Joseph Smith to the women of Nauvoo". He told them to stop "feeding on the faults of others". Sister Dew emphasized how much we need each other and that while it is up to us to make it we need to help each other. Watch your tongue for the next week. No negative judgments. We need to make each other feel safe. We should assume that we are all doing our very best. Then she talked about a wheel and sometimes we are at the top of the wheel and sometimes we are at the bottom of the wheel but sometimes when we are at the bottom of the wheel we are doing our very best and we need help.
- We need to be tethered to Jesus Christ (they were tethered to the bridge so they would fall off). We need to rooted to Jesus Christ. (Her new six yr old neighbor pulled out 30 newly planted plants and took them to her back yard only able to do it because they weren't rooted yet.) The only thing that will save us is our Relationship with/in Jesus Christ. Luke 4:18 ..."I am come to heal the broken hearted..."
- The Atonement makes it possible. Make and KEEP covenants. Take the time, effort and energy to make the climb. Be engaged in the assent.
